VAM galleries including this work:
The Owensboro Museum of Fine Art | Seeing Red | What’s in a Name? || VAM Home

Joe Downing works in both two- and three-dimensional forms, and his sculptures often include painted surfaces reflective of his painting style. The artist has said that his color use and presentation were influenced by the play of light he saw on cave walls while growing up in Horse Cave, Kentucky. He experienced the same sort of light activity when he saw the Gothic cathedrals of France and the light filtering through the great colored glass onto the cathedral walls.

About the Artist

Joe Downing was born November 15, 1925, near Tompkinsville, Kentucky. He moved with his family to Horse Cave in 1927. After serving in the military during the last years of World War II, he moved to Chicago, studying optometry by day and art in the evenings. During this period he realized that the visual arts would be his vocation. In 1950, he planned a trip to Paris that was to last for just a few months—but that visit to France turned into a permanent stay.

At Downing’s first one-person exhibition at Galerie 8 in Paris in 1952, his work was viewed by artist Pablo Picasso, who encouraged the young artist by pronouncing, “Well done.” Since that exhibition, Downing has shown his work extensively in Europe, with one piece displayed at the Louvre in Paris. His work is held in collections throughout the world, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, and Jerusalem. In the United States, he is represented in collections in Kentucky, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Washington, and Washington, DC.

Classroom Ideas

Discussion: How does Downing use line, shape, and space? Do you think this work fits its title? What style of work is this?

Links

See other examples of Downing’s work at the web page about a 2000 exhibit of his work at the Kentucky Library and Museum.
[www.wku.edu/Library/onlinexh/jd/]